Cali Andrist

Cali Andrist was a 58-year-old developmentally disabled woman with the mentality of a four-year-old. In 2012 she woke up with terrible stomach pain, and that evening her brother, who was her full-time caregiver, took her to an emergency room. After she received a CT scan doctors admitted her with what they thought was a small bowel obstruction. While she was getting a second CT scan, Cali went into cardiac arrest that may have been caused by an improper combination of a radioactive medium she was give for the scan and a powerful painkiller that was administered for her pain. Hospital personnel incorrectly thought Cali had a “do not resuscitate” order in her medical record and did not attempt to resuscitate her immediately. When her brother and another nurse caught on to what was happening, a Code Blue was finally called. Cali was revived 17 minutes later, but it was too late as the damage had already been done, and she did not recover. The medical record showed Cali exhibited numerous symptoms of severe sepsis from the time she entered the ER that were ignored and led to the shutting down of her organs. Her small bowel turned out not to be just obstructed but strangulated, leaking poisons into her abdomen that led to sepsis. Because Cali was unable to work because of her disability, MICRA values her life at just $250,000.

Paid for by Yes on Prop. 46, Your Neighbors for Patient Safety, a Coalition of Consumer Attorneys and Patient Safety Advocates - major funding by Consumer Attorneys of California Issues and Initiative Defense Political Action Committees and Kabateck, Brown, Kellner, LLP.